Though it was the twentieth century that witnessed two official World Wars, the great powers of the eighteenth century also experienced conflicts that were truly global in nature. The greater of those, the Seven Years’ War, stretched from 1754 to 1763, with the principal conflict being in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. American history focuses on the French and Indian War as the conflict in the North American theater, but the war altogether involved Europe, Central America and the Caribbean, the coast of West Africa, India, and the Philippine Islands in the Pacific. The war was fueled by intense rivalry between Great Britain (with its family tie to the German state of Hanover) and the Bourbon kingdoms of France and Spain, which had conflicting trade and colonial interests. In Central Europe, deep antagonism existed between Prussia’s Hohenzollern dynasty and the Habsburgs who served as Austrian archdukes and Holy Roman Emperors, due to conflicts of territory and influence. On one side, Britain, Prussia, and a few other German states formed an alliance (later joined by Portugal). On the other side, Austria and France were allied, together with Saxony, Sweden, and, for parts of the war, Russia and Spain. Human losses in Europe were substantial. In the end, separate treaties were concluded in Paris and Hubertusburg. In America, France yielded most of Canada to Great Britain, which also secured Spanish Florida, some Caribbean islands, and Senegal, as well as a superior trading role in India. Native American groups lost sovereignty as a result of the war and further conflicts. Prussia and Austria essentially reverted to conditions present before the war, though with heavy Prussian casualties, but Prussia’s wartime role is credited with strengthening Britain’s position, helping secure its considerable territorial and hegemonic gains. Portugal, Spain, and Sweden emerged with diminished power, though Spain secured territory west of the Mississippi and regained Cuba and the main island of the Philippines.

The avowed purpose of Mittelberger’s testimony is to warn off innocent German immigrants from the dangers of conscription as indentured servants, wherein he argued they would become virtual slaves. Beyond this goal, he provided an important personal insight into the character of eastern Pennsylvania and bordering areas in the mid-eighteenth century.

“Returning to Pennsylvania again, it offers people more freedom than the other English colonies, since all religious sects are tolerated there. One can encounter Lutherans, members of the Reformed Church, Catholics, Quakers, Mennonites or Anabaptists, Herrnhüter or Moravian Brothers, Pietists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Dunkers, Presbyterians, Born-Agains, Freemasons, Separatists, Freethinkers, Jews, Mohammedans, Pagans, Negroes, and Indians.” He added, however, that the preachers were without power, subject to dismissal, and could force no one to attend services.

Mittelberger departed from Pennsylvania in 1754, but followed news and rumors of the developing war from his home in Germany. He reported in error that the French had captured Lancaster in 1755 and opined that the colony would not long survive a war, due to its pacifist, Quaker-influenced culture.

While advising no one to undertake the perilous project of immigration, Mittelberger did offer a certain admiration: “The most distant strangers trust each other more than do acquaintances in Europe. Also, people are far more sincere and generous toward each other than in Germany. That is why our Americans live together far more quietly and peacefully than the Europeans. And all this is the result of the liberty they enjoy, that makes them all equal.”

This periodical was issued for nine years and was almost exclusively concerned with events during the Seven Years' War, including the various peace treaties that led to the termination of hostilities. It is open to a map showing Acadia.

This letter from a Quaker in Pennsylvania, translated from an English source now lost, cites British military behavior as undermining its cause: “The cruelty with which the English officers met the American natives right from the beginning set them against the Nation, made them irreconcilable foes and therefore all the more dangerous, since from that time they conspicuously strengthened the French armies, and thirsted for nothing else than the blood of their former confederates.”

David Hirschel Franckel, ca. 1704-1762. A thanksgiving sermon, for the important and astonishing victory obtain'd on the fifth of December, 1757, by the glorious king of Prussia. New-York: Parker and Weyman, [1758].

This Jewish sermon was translated from Eine Danck-Predigt wegen des wichtigen und wundervollen Siegs, Berlin, 1758. The event referred to in the title is the Battle of Leuthen, Silesia, where the Austrian forces, with superior numbers, were defeated by those of Frederick the Great. The sermon offers testimony to Jewish patriotism in the Kingdom of Prussia. Franckel was a jeweler, Chief Rabbi of Berlin, and a serious scholar of the Jerusalem Talmud. The sermon translation was originally published London, 1758. In addition to this New York edition, it was also published in Boston and Philadelphia. The German original was reprinted in Philadelphia as well.

This newsmagazine, issued twice yearly for the fall and spring trade fairs in Frankfurt, reported extensively on the events of war in both Europe and distant North America, as on the capture of Fort Frontenac by the British in 1759. Shown here is the battle of Hochkirch in Saxony in October 1758, a low point for the Prussian King, Frederick William, and an illustration on two levels of the Fog of War. Camped at Hochkirch, Frederick’s forces were waiting for supplies from Bautzen and developed no real defensive strategy, believing the Austrian forces to be dormant. Marshal Leopold Josef, Graf Daun, leading the Austrian forces who were situated nearby, unseen on higher ground, surveyed the Prussians for days before deciding to attack, seeing that he outnumbered them two to one. The Austrians advanced under cover of fog and darkness, and caught the Prussians still asleep. Frederick lost a quarter of his soldiers, six generals, 101 guns, and most of the tents before retreating. For his victory, Marshall Daun received a sword and hat from Pope Clement XIII, rewards often given for the defeat of “infidels,” who were in this case German Protestants.

“Since the American Antilles are the seat of the European plantations and trade, and therefore have a considerable influence on the current war and national history, and will certainly also on the peace that will hopefully arrive soon; one therefore believes that the public is done a favor by our delivering a brief summary description by the best writers. The current harsh war had its first igniting in the American colonies, and for that reason we read in almost all the journals of the events of war in those countries, which one can hardly understand without correct background knowledge.”

“We begin with the French West Indies, because they were the most besieged in the current war, and for the most part have already been conquered by the English. Martinique and Guadeloupe are the finest islands of the French possessions, and now these are gone. One will discover that this loss is a finishing blow to French affairs in the West Indies, just as Pondichery was in the East Indies. The two islands brought in many millions for France annually, and in terms of profit were much more considerable than all of Canada.” In fact, the French understood the islands’ economic importance very well, and gave away all of its Canadian territory to gain them back.

George III. An act for naturalizing such foreign Protestants as have served, or shall serve … as officers or soldiers in His Majesty’s Royal American Regiment, or as engineers in America. London: Mark Baskett & Assigns of Robert Baskett, 1762.

Toward the end of the Seven Years War, an easy path to immigration and citizenship was offered to those Protestants, most of whom would have been German, who served the King as engineers or soldiers in America for two years or more. They were required to perform an oath and show certification of having received the Protestant Sacrament within six months previous.

The law also refers to Princess Sophia, the lately deceased (1757) daughter of George I, wed to the Protestant Frederick William of Prussia. It had been her hope to have her children wed to royal British family members. Her brother was George II.

This historic narrative of the Seven Years’ War includes brief summaries of the peace treaties of Fontainebleau (1762) and Hubertusburg (1763); the first one has many important references to America, including France’s ceding of Canada in order to regain the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The book is open to a map of Germany. The Library’s copy is bound with King Frederick of Prussia’s Lettres secretes touchant la derniere guerre, his private musings regarding the war, also published under a false imprint, claiming publication in Frankfurt.

Exhibition prepared by dennis landis.
on view in the reading room from may to September 15, 2013.